Creds
by Scoops838
Summary: Tag to 11.3 Under the Radar - Tim thought that he was saved from the wrath of IG when he walked off to the elevator but how had he lost his credentials in the first place and was Gibbs really going to let him get away with the lies and subterfuge without some punishment. Father / Son: Adult Discipline. Will contain spanking. Don't like don't read.
1. Chapter 1

The Night Before

Why he had let Abby talk him into going to the Sterile Puppets concert in the first place Tim did not know but, always susceptible to her manipulative charms, he had found himself driving over to Abby's place to pick her up and then drive with her to the RFK Stadium. After all, he told himself, it was a night when he was not on call and he and Abby had not been out for a while and he missed their little adventures even if some of them were not necessarily what he would call "his sort of thing."

As they approached the venue the queue for the car park was long and slow-moving and with little to no patience Tim called over the traffic cop who was supposed to be martialling the waiting traffic to try a trick he had heard Tony talk about before which had been used to get out of speeding tickets and parking fines in the past. With any luck it would get them moving and stop Abby from panicking that they were going to miss her friend the drummer who had gotten the tickets for her in the first place. Finally pandering to her repeated, "Do something McGee", Tim fished into his pocket and pulling out his credentials he waved them towards the cop who came over to the window of the vehicle,

"How can I help you Sir?" he questioned, frowning slightly as he took in the details of the Badge waved in front of him.

"Er, we need to get through this line officer, we,… um, … er … have been called in for extra security within the Stadium" offered Tim, not overly convincingly. Seeing the cop hesitate he quickly added… "We are expecting there to be a lot of Navy personnel here tonight and things being as they are with the high alert status, we have been drafted in."

"And your friend here?" asked the cop nodding towards Abby and noticing the goth outfit she was wearing, "she a navy cop too?"

"Sure," Tim nodded, noting perhaps for the first time himself the over the top, self-styled Abby costume which he loved but did not necessarily fit the profile of someone going to provide undercover security, "we need to blend in you know," he added.

Seemingly it worked, either that or the cop was too disinterested to inquire any further. Putting his hands up to direct the nearby traffic and in the process causing traffic mayhem and various irate blasts of car horns, he ushered the excited Abby and rather nervous McGee through the line of traffic and into the employees parking lot.

Ordinarily McGee would have locked his creds into his glove compartment at this stage, not wanting to risk losing them in the crushing mosh-pit that Abby was about to drag him into. Worrying however that once inside the cop who had helped them may call him up for further questions and therefore needing to keep them on him he tucked them into the back pocket of his jeans and entered the throng.

Although it wasn't his beloved jazz, Tim had to admit that the concert had been great and he and Abby had a great time, had met the band afterwards for a drink (or in Abbys case several drinks) and then had driven her home made sure she was safely in her apartment and had set off home himself. All thoughts of how they had got into the concert and the lies he had told the officer were long gone from his memory.

As he set off from Abbys' to his own address, and not far from the Navy Yard itself his cell phone pinged with a message from Delilah,

Call me Sweetie need to talk.

Concerned that it could be urgent Tim dialed her number. No answer. Three attempts later and still nothing. Tim spun his car around into the Navy Yard and headed into the NCIS headquarters. Practically deserted at that time of night save for the cleaners, a few security and the night response team who were up on 5th floor, Tim made his way over to his desk. Recalling that he had left an update programme running over night he realized he wouldn't be able to use that to get hold of Delilah over the computer. He thought about logging onto one of the other computers but last time he had tried to use Gibbs', well lets say it had not ended well, and Tony, well his desk was currently covered in files and doughnut dust and Tim didn't have time to shift it.

Looking up towards the next floor and the big grey door to MTAC, a thought occurred to him, Delilah in full cinematic size in front of him would be great, he missed her so much and no one would disturb him in there. Seconds later he bounded up the stairs into MTAC and connected with Delilah.

"Hi Tim" she answered looking rather puzzled at his appearing at this time of night on the MTAC screen where she was working, "Is everything ok?" she asked as she looked around to see if Gibbs or Tony were about to appear on screen too.

"I'm answering your text, it sounded urgent," responded the equally bewildered McGee.

"Oh…. I sent that hours ago before I came into the office, have you only just received it?"

Tim looked down at his phone and noted that the time of the text would have been roughly the same time that he and Abby had gone into the stadium. He guessed he had lost signal there for a while and the message had only pinged through sometime later. Feeling himself going slightly red with embarrassment at the unnecessary panic he had betrayed to the woman he loved and wanted to show he could protect and look after, Tim shuffled over to the screen and started muttering an apology of sorts for disturbing her at work.

Delilah, wanting to put an end to his obvious embarrassment repeated his name over and over, first of all softly and then when that did not seem to break into his babbling apology she got a little louder until she shouted so loud that she herself panicked that she would bring in her colleagues from neighbouring offices to check if she was ok.

Eventually Tim overcame that embarrassment and the two soon lapsed into their easy chats about life, work, the concert and more. As they started to bring the conversation to a close 40 minutes later (mainly due to the fact that McGee was struggling to stay awake) Delilah sent him home to bed to sleep, just as he was about to say goodnight to her, Tim suddenly realized he had not in all of his initial embarrassment asked her why she needed to talk to him.

"Oh, its just that my parents are insisting that when I'm back from this assignment in a months time I go and stay with them and not with you but they want to meet you, Dad says he wants to have a word with you man to man about something," blurted out Delilah.

Seeing that Tim was doing a great impression of a worried goldfish, Delilah added a hurried "Don't worry it will all be fine." Seeing that this still had not eased Tims' worried expression and failing to get any further words out of him she told him she loved him, blew him a dozen kisses and shut off the link between the two centres.

Still in that state of high anxiety, Tim wondered out of the building and eventually home. It was now nearly 0300 and he would just about have sufficient time to grab a shower, sleep for an hour or so and then get himself up to start another working day on Team Gibbs. Dumping his clothes into an unruly pile on the floor and resolving to sort them out in the morning, Tim showered and jumped into bed with thoughts about his forthcoming meeting with "the parents" of the girl he loved.


	2. Chapter 2

The Morning After

He couldn't recall hearing the alarm go off at 0530 as it usually did but he must at some point in his sleep deprived state have reached over to stop the incessant buzzing. Usually when he did this he would activate the sleep function which would give him another 10 minutes, today however he must have caught the off button as when he eventually opened his blurry eyes and stared at the digital display it was flashing 0730 and he was late.

Quickly grabbing clean clothes out of the closet and pulling them on frantically, Tim noted the pile of clothes from the night before and quickly routed through there to grab his wallet and keys. He took his gun out of the lock box in the corner of the room and rushed out of the door. He wouldn't have time to get his usual coffee and the doughnut with sprinkles on.

As he pulled into the parking lot McGee reached over to the glove box to take the creds out of their usual storage spot. An increasing feeling of fear crept over him as he rummaged through the assortment of papers, empty food wrappers and CD's that littered the storage compartment. No badge was to be found. Trying to force a calmness to overcome him so that he could think, Tim tried to replay in his mind the last time he'd had them.

Memories of the night before came swimming back, the queue of traffic, the insistent Abby worrying about missing the start of the concert, the traffic cop dismissive of their reason for trying to get through the queue but ultimately disinterested, the stashing of his badge in his jeans pocket and going into the mosh pit. Forcing down the sickening lump rising in his throat he tried to continue, was the badge still in the jeans on the pile on the floor. If so he was ok, but the crushing memory of rummaging through the jeans to retrieve his wallet and the checking of all of the pockets for it made him realize that the badge was not there. Had he only dreamt about his use of them the night before. Perhaps he hadn't taken them home, perhaps they were still in his desk. This was more of a prayer than a hope but McGee needed something to cling to, to get him into that building where his boss would be waiting.

Already late for work and clearly already in a whole heap of trouble if Gibbs knew, Tim rushed into the building, practically ignoring Murray who was sat at Zivas computer and Tony who tried to speak to him.

He checked through the desk only looking up as Tony strode over to his desk to find out what was going on with the junior agent.

"What's the matter?" enquired Tony rather perplexed at the normally cheerful Probies lack of morning jollity.

"I can't find my badge and ID" blurted out Tim.

"Urgh, lost your creds that's serious," Tony said, his facing contorting with the thoughts of the reaction Gibbs was going to have when Tim told him.

"Yeah I know Tony I couldn't find them at home I was hoping I'd left them here" snapped back McGee, almost immediately realizing he was taking the anger at himself out on his friend and senior agent to boot.

"You are so screwed," helpfully added Tony trying to get across to his friend that he sympathized with his plight but clearly failing to do so.

"Thank God I didn't lose my building access card" added Tim, as if this made things any better, he thought to himself, he was so screwed, Tony was right.

"Lost creds initiate an automatic IG-2(b) investigation, that's almost as serious as losing your weapon, you didn't lose that too did you?" Once again Tony was thinking out loud and not necessarily helping the ever panicking Tim.

"You keep talking and I'll use it" Tim snapped back.

"Hey you gotta chill out alright, no need to report the loss if they're just gonna show up ok, you just need to think, visualize, when was the last time you saw them," Tony responded realizing that his comments were not really helping his friend but still a little hurt himself that Tim had threatened to shoot him.

"Tony I've tried that" replied Mcgee, only to be cut short by the arrival of Gibbs announcing they had a case at the apartment of a navy lieutenant whose flat had blown up killing the building manager in the process.

As they arrived at the scene Gibbs led the way leaving Tony and Tim at the rear of the NCIS truck gathering the kit. As usual Tony was letting Tim do the majority of the carrying (well in fact all of it) and was taking a note of the surroundings.

He took great pleasure in reporting to his Probie that the rookie cop who was on duty was taking a lot of care checking peoples badges as they entered the crime scene and with that he took off leaving Tim in his wake. Tony took care to demonstrate his creds to the rookie and when allowed entry turned to watch the approach of McGee. One thing, he thought to himself, the Probie has learned how to improvise over the years. He waited as Tim approached, arms full of kit they did not need and his note pad stuck in his mouth so that he could not be expected to speak clearly. Somehow he got through and Tony applauded him, but once in the building he took him to one side.

"First of all nice improvisation Probie, but you know you need to tell Gibbs, if he finds out you are on site without creds…." Tony was cut off.

"He won't find out Tony" spoke Tim in a rather muted voice but none-the-less through gritted teeth, "cos you're not gonna tell him."

"Oh Oh and why's that McLoser?" prodded Tony.

"Because if I tell him now, he will ask who else knew and if I'm being honest I would have to tell him that I had told the SFA on the team and then he's going to ask you why you didn't tell him either" retorted Tim.

Just as Tony was about to retaliate they heard Gibbs boom from the floor above,

"How about you two get your backsides up here and start doing some work or are you intending to look for a new job?"

Both agents raced up the stairs and started bagging and tagging evidence and taking photos and drawing diagrams of the area, their argument put to one side both having realized that neither of them would come out of this scenario with Gibbs without some painful reminder about telling him the truth and making sure they backed their partners up rather than set them up to fail.

With that, the two efficiently and quietly processed the crime scene, Tony even helped Tim carry the kit back to the vehicle, which was almost an unprecedented action. As he did so he took McGee to one side,

"Look I'm sorry about earlier," he began, "I could see you were stressed out and I wasn't helping, still a good move with the improvisation though."

Tim smiled weakly, "it's Ok Tony, I'm sorry too, I'm just so worried about telling Gibbs, he's going to kill me."

"Not as much as if we keep lying to him though…. look you need to tell him, I'll come with you for support and say that you reported it to me as the SFA on the team because he wasn't around." Offered Tony, "at least it might re-direct a bit of his anger towards me rather than all at you."

"You'd do that for me?" Tim was quite taken aback.

"Of course Probie its part of the job, I'm there when you decide you need to tell him."

The two rode back to the Navy Yard in almost absolute silence, Tony hoping that his Probie was going to do the right thing soon and Tim trying just one final time to think where on earth he had lost the Creds.

Once back in the bullpen the case hit full swing and Tim didn't really find the time to take Gibbs to one side to tell him, well that's what he kept telling himself anyway. Then the perfect opportunity to come clean presented itself. Gibbs requested McGee's attendance with him at the Pentagon.

Tim and Tony both stopped in their tracks. That was going to need the use of ID and a badge, now Tim had to tell Gibbs surely. Tony waited expectantly expecting the next words out of Gibbs mouth to be to tell them to both get their backsides into the conference room for a little conversation. However that did not come.

He stood there astounded as instead Tim compounded their situation by lying to the all-knowing Gibbs, their boss, their father figure, the man who above all else hated being lied to. Out of the corner of his eye Tony could see Gibbs patiently listening to Tims bumbling explanation of Abby needing his help with processing the bomb residue. Was Gibbs really going to buy that? he thought to himself. He waited for the explosion….. none came.

To his other side stood McGee, pulse racing so much and pounding so loudly that he swore the rest of the people in the bullpen could hear it. He couldn't believe what he had just said to Gibbs, it was if his mouth had just taken on a life of its own, it certainly did not appear to be connected to his brain anymore. He watched as Gibbs paused for a moment, he saw how Tony cringed clearly expecting their Boss to explode in someway. He almost saw a tinge of disappointment, did Gibbs know? But then suddenly he just accepted it as if it were perfectly natural.

Gibbs for his part felt that famous gut of his start to churn. Something was not quite right with the scene. Tim had been acting rather odd all day, the conversation he had interrupted this morning between Tony and Tim in the bullpen did not seem quite right and at the scene he'd had to shout at the two of them to get started and then on the ride back they had both been so quiet. Surely one of them would tell him if something was up, maybe everyone was just feeling the strain of not having Ziva around. It would all come out at some point, he just hoped that he would be able to fix whatever it was. With that he turned and headed for the elevator.


	3. Chapter 3

Making things worse

As the lift doors closed Tony turned to face Tim and with an air of utter disbelief at what he had just witnessed he said, "Did you just lie to the all-knowing Gibbs?"

"It was stupid wasn't it?" stated Tim not really needing an answer to that question but getting it none the less.

He knew he was going to have to inform IG he just was panicking again, he vaguely heard Tony talking to him until Tony said something about a "booty call with DOD Delilah." Tony of course was joking, he hadn't known about the concert or the improper use of MTAC in the middle of the night. A thought struck him, what if the badge had dropped out in the MTAC. He couldn't however just waltz in there and have a look, sure he would need to at some point but perhaps a final check to see if Abby had heard anything from her friends at the concert might be worth it rather than getting caught snooping around in MTAC without a good reason.

He dashed off to the lab, Abby however could only offer sympathy for the situation, no news had come through from her friends. There was nothing else for it, he would have to search MTAC.

Maybe today would be his lucky day after all. MTAC was temporarily empty. He let himself in and started a systematic search around the computers and then back to the seats he had sat on only the night before. It was at that point he heard the door crack open and heard none other than the Director and Special Agent Strickland enter the room. She just wanted a site-seeing trip of HQ before she retired and Vance had been happy to chat with her and show her around himself.

The movement of someone's butt and a pair of feet behind one of the rows of chairs temporarily stopped the tour in its tracks as Vance moved in closer to see McGee down on his hands and knees. A somewhat strange and awkward conversation about the loss of a car key later and Vance decided to just ignore it for now, no doubt if something was up Gibbs would get to the bottom of it.

As McGee left MTAC he cursed to himself. How could he have just stood there and lied to the Director. He was in so much trouble already and he was just making it worse. It wasn't as if the Director was not going to find out. When he had to put the inevitable report into IG they would alert Vance and then Vance would know that he had been lied to. Gibbs would know that he had been lied to. He could feel his head starting to spin, his breathing slightly increased and he raced off to the head relieving his stomach of the meager contents it contained and taking some time to splash cold water onto his face to calm himself down.

By the time he had returned to the squad room Gibbs was back from the Pentagon. New leads necessitated a trip to the base at Anacostia, Gibbs looked over to his two agents to send them on their way.

It was now or never. Tim knew he needed his badge to get in there, he couldn't possibly come up with another lie to get him out of going there, he had to come clean to Gibbs. He stood and as purposefully as he could he walked over to Gibbs' desk. He knew he had to confess. This was his mess and he had to face it, should have faced it right from the beginning, would have saved himself the guilt if not the worry but he hadn't been feeling that brave. Now he had to be.

Not knowing where he drew the courage from to say it, he leant forward, perhaps in the vane hope of keeping it a quiet conversation between him and his boss and confessed the loss.

"Boss I got a problem I lost my creds; I haven't seen them since last night"

"You are just telling me this now?" retorted Gibbs, "Did you report this to our IG?"

"No I wanted to tell you first," even Tim was not convinced by this answer. He watched the look of disappointment on Gibbs face as he nodded in the direction of his desk effectively ordering him to sit down. "I'll notify them" he added.

Tony left the bull pen with a none to happy Agent Strickland who did not want an unscheduled visit to Anacostia, especially not with DiNozzo who she had heard was like a moving target. As she left Tim rested his head on his hand as he waited on the line for IG to pick up at their end. Now he was alone in the office with Gibbs and no Tony to divert attention. This was not going to be good. Perhaps Gibbs might hold off of him until IG was finished with him. He could hardly sit down and confess the loss to them if Gibbs' boot was still attached to his ass.

Gibbs for his part was doing well to hold in his ire. Sure losing the creds was serious but not anywhere near as bad as not reporting it…. and the lying about it all that made it worse, of all the stupid things his boys did what he couldn't understand is why they had not yet learnt to come to him for help. Surely Tim would have asked someone for help. Tony… he would have asked Tony. That would explain the strange atmosphere that had been unsettling his gut all day. He would get to the bottom of this.. quite literally if necessary.

For the next hour or so they all kept on working in almost total silence except for when Gibbs demanded information. The rest of the time Tim knew that he was grounded to his desk, and would not being going anywhere unless at the behest of his boss or IG. It was maybe an hour or so after that that Vance rounded the corner in to the bullpen, clutching in his hand none other than the lost credentials, found by the police at the stadium and handed into the IG's office.

Gibbs still struggling to contain his upset at McGees stupidity and lies shrugged things off, telling Vance he knew about the loss but had been too busy to deal with the matter at this point. Reading between the lines, that Gibbs was not just going to let this drop but needed time and a little more calmness to sort it out, Vance turned once more to offer a disappointed look at McGee.

For his part McGee did not know whether to be relieved at the fact his creds were found and not being used by criminals for some nefarious purpose or to start panicking once again about the trouble he was now in with Vance, Gibbs and IG.

He did not know if his career would survive this little episode. Eugene from IG was on his way and he was notorious for following procedure by the book and whoa betides anyone who did not share that same ethos and worse still he had lied to his bosses. Seeking some comfort he went to the lab to find Abby. Pleased that her best friend had got his Creds back but seeing the fear in his face that he was either going to be suspended or fired she tried to divert him with news of the bands success. Twitter was going wild, one million followers and hundreds of thousands of tweets. At least someone's career was doing well thought McGee to himself, still wallowing in self-pity. However it was shortly after that McGee had a moment of genius and arguably through his idea saved the destruction of a ship, its crew and its expensive systems.

Having saved the ship and on leaving MTAC with Gibbs and Tony, McGee looked to his boss and asked what he should do now. The case was over, disaster averted and now there was nothing between him and Gibbs and sorting this mess out. Gibbs for his part looked and felt tired. It had been a hellish day and IG still hadn't investigated. As much as he knew that McGee needed him to deal with this he knew he could not really step in until he knew what those above him in this scenario wanted to do.

"We will sort this out later," he said, and then turning to Tony, "I mean with the pair of you."

Tony gulped, "Um me too boss?"

"Yeah Dinozzo, you too, I think you know why." and with that Gibbs started to make his way to his desk to close things down for the night.

"Get some sleep guys"

That was however not to happen, no sooner had Gibbs finished telling them to go home than they all became aware that Eugene was in their area and waiting for McGee.

Gibbs might have been mightily annoyed at his boys but he was not such an ogre that he was just going to throw them to the wolves. He tried to intervene with Eugene appealing to his sense of fairness but that was not going to get them anywhere. McGee dejectedly bowed his head and made to follow Eugene out of the office and into the interrogation room where the rest of his fate would no doubt be decided.

What no one expected was that Vance would be the saviour of the day, announcing that Tim would be going no-where other than to the White House to meet with the President to be personally thanked for the ingenious plan that he and his team had pulled off.

Not wanting to give Eugene a chance to alter that course of action Gibbs strode over to McGee and placed an arm around the boys shoulder and guided him with the others towards the elevator and out of the clutches of the IG.

Gibbs could feel Tim's shoulders relax a little as they moved away. The boy was obviously relieved and Gibbs could almost feel the stress dissipating. What however he could not accept was the look that Tim gave over his shoulder towards Eugene which almost passed as smugness. No his team was not getting away with that! As the lift doors closed and the elevator began to descend Gibbs released the hold he had on the young man and turned him to face him.

"You need to loose the smug look McGee, you might be about to get congratulated by the President, and don't get me wrong I am proud of the work you did today too, but you are a long way from being out of trouble on this, do you understand?"

Tim gulped, he had not meant to look smug, he was surprised and pleased with his invite to the White House and more than anything he was amazed that the Director had stepped in to bring it all to an end. He dropped his head, "Yes Sir, I'm sorry."


	4. Chapter 4

Making it better again.

The trip to the White House had not only been a surprise but a welcome distraction. The team behaved impeccably and accepted the praise and the thanks of the president who said that their service to their country would be officially recognized in the coming months. Director Vance was beaming, his agency had done extremely well and was being congratulated personally by the most powerful man in the world. It was days like this he lived for; to see his teams thanked for their devotion to the job and praised heaped on the agency. It certainly wouldn't do any harm next time he had to have a visit to the Hill to defend their spending budget.

However as the evening wore on and they were finally escorted from the White House and back to their vehicle all of the occupants knew that this event was still not over and done with.

As they drove away Vance was the first to speak.

"I hope you know just how lucky you are Agent McGee, without this and also calling in every favour this agency has we might have just saved your career."

Tim responded "Director, I'm grateful for everything that you have done to help me and I promise you that this will never happen again Sir, I am so sorry."

"You are certainly going to be sorry Tim," interrupted Gibbs. "Director, would you take my team off of rotation for the next few days, we need a little time to sort things out."

"What all of you?" asked Vance, clearly unaware of any role DiNozzo had to play in this. "I guess so but if something big comes up I will have to call you all back."

"Understood" was Gibbs' only reply.

Tony and Tim both did their best to disappear into the leather seats of the vehicle. They remained in situ when Gibbs pulled up to let Vance out to get his own car. They guessed they would not be going anywhere soon and they were right. The moment Vance was over to his own vehicle Gibbs pulled away and headed home with the two young men in tow.

He said nothing until they pulled onto the familiar driveway. Neither could recall just how many times in the past they had arrived in this way at Gibbs house in the past, but it was certainly too many, and yet there was something oddly comforting about the fact that although they were both in trouble, their boss cared enough about them to still keep putting up with all of their rubbish and sorting things out with them.

As they entered the hallway Gibbs nodded to his phone, "I'm gonna order food, Chinese ok?" Both nodded and Tony's stomach growled to boot and as if to emphasize that more than anything else he needed to eat. It had been a frantic day and the finger buffet at the White House, as complete and full as it was, was not one where he felt he could fill up on as it would look rude to greet the President with a plate in one hand piled high with food and his mouth full of those delicious Danish pastries. "Go upstairs and get changed the pair of you."

Tim led the way and on entering the room both shared if ever they stayed over at Gibbs' place he turned to Tony.

"I'm sorry I dragged you into this Tony, look I'll tell Gibbs it is all my fault and you knew nothing about this."

Moving to the side of Tim, Tony placed a caring arm around him.

"Look Probie, you and me, we are in enough trouble as it is without lying any further to Gibbs, added to which, I promised you I would not let you face this alone, what kind of SFA and big brother type do you take me for?"

Tim could not help but allow a soft smile to permeate his otherwise grim looking face.

"Thanks Tony." he whispered into his shoulder as Tony pulled him closer in and hugged him.

"Don't sweat it lil' bro we are in this together and to the end. Now lets get changed and our backsides down stairs before Gibbs comes up to find out where we are"

Moments later clad in jogging bottoms and comfy sweatshirts, which they kept at Gibbs place for the impromptu stay overs, the two agents made their way down stairs.

Gibbs by now had also changed, downed two cups of strong black coffee and was taking the food out of the containers and putting onto plates. All three men sat down at his dining table and tucked in. The food was good and the conversation included DiNozzo's views on the folding of the serviettes used in the White House, to trying to get Gibbs to understand the whole thing about hashtags. It flowed easy but as the food came to an end and the three started to clear away the plates and containers they all knew that the inevitable was not far away.

As he put the last of the plates away in the cupboard Gibbs turned to his boys and told them to go and wait for him in the living room. Tim froze almost to the spot he knew this was coming, he wanted to get it over with and yet he could not move. He could feel Tony pulling at his arm and gently tugging him towards the living room. Somehow his feet moved to help him on the way but Tim felt as if he had lost all control and was uncertain about how he was going to stand there and explain everything to Gibbs.

Gibbs would expect them to report everything right from the beginning and leaving nothing out. He would expect them to know and understand the rules they had broken and what they had done wrong. Tim just did not know how he was going to put it into words.

Tony could see the fear on Tims face and rested his arm around his shoulders as he had done earlier in the evening,

"Just start from the beginning, take your time and don't worry about getting me into trouble or out of it. I know you are used to me having to talk first but Gibbs is going to expect it to be you this time Probie and I know that you are capable of doing it."

At that point Gibbs entered the living room, having heard from the doorway the advice Tony was giving Tim and proud of him for the role he was now stepping up to and taking with the youngest agent. He moved to his spot in the middle of the sofa and looked expectantly towards the boys, who now seemed much younger than their years, or, perhaps Gibbs thought, it was just that he was getting much older, much too old for all of this.

"Ok Tim, you had better start from the beginning, but be aware that I have spoken to the cops who found the ID, and Vance. I now want to hear everything from you."

Tim gathered himself up, seemingly growing an inch or two as he breathed in a long breath and lifted his eyes to face Gibbs.

"It started at the concert" he said resigned now to his fate, " I wanted to keep Abby happy and perhaps I was showing off a bit and I used my Creds to get us moved through the line."

"Just how did you manage that?" inquired Gibbs already having heard the story from the Cop who had found the ID, who happened to be the one who had let them through the traffic to go to their security detail!

"Well, um, er, I kind of let them think that we had been called in as extra security for the gig," stuttered McGee, realizing at this moment he was also dropping Abby right into the mix of things too.

Realising that Tim had probably picked this up from him, and from his stories about the uses one could put credentials too and wanting to divert the attention away from Abby's part in all of this, Tony tried to interject. However the moment he went to open his mouth he was met by an icy glare and a look which told him that Gibbs probably already knew where Tim would have gotten this idea from.

Tim then continued with the realization that morning that he had not got the Creds on him, the tricking his way into the crime scene, and could feel himself building up unshed tears in his eyes when he came to the part about the lying about the Pentagon visit to Gibbs. He could see his boss' disappointment and if Tim McGee struggled with anything it was with the feeling that he had evoked that bitter disappointment from the man he considered to be a second father.

"Why didn't you tell me at this point Tim?" queried Gibbs in a voice much gentler than even he expected he was capable of at this point.

Tims eyes dropped to the ground, the tears were now rolling down his cheeks, "I don't know he muttered," and then added, "I just panicked."

Seeing the visible distress Tim was in Tony felt that he had to do something to save his sidekick.

"Boss'" he interjected, "it is just as much my fault as Tims'. He had told me and I knew why he couldn't go to the Pentagon and I kept quiet too. I know how you feel about lies of omission and I want you to know that I'm sorry too. I should have stopped it all there and then but I didn't."

"No, you didn't but what I don't understand Tony is why you didn't. You are a Senior Field Agent, you are supposed to know the rules. Hell, one day you will have your own team and they will need to know that you are trustworthy and are not going to keep things from you, just as you would expect them to be with you." Gibbs turned towards his SFA. "so just why didn't you tell me?"

"There's no excuse Boss'" said Tony realizing that there was no way of his trying to make this situation better.

"It's not Tony's fault Sir," came a quiet voice from Tim. "He was just trying to give me the chance to come clean to you myself and I let him and you down. Please don't punish him." Tim broke down again.

Gibbs as angry as he was with the pair could not help but feel a little pride at the way the two were trying to protect each other, but he still couldn't let Tony off of the hook.

He turned his gaze once again to Tony, "Is that right?" he asked.

"Well partly I guess I did tell him at the scene that he needed to tell you but I know I shouldn't have let him try to get into the scene in the first place without his Creds and without telling you." responded Tony.

"So what went wrong then?" Gibbs probed further.

"Well I thought it would be funny to see Probie try and talk his way past the Rookie cop, and to be fair he did well," answered Tony trying to give the mood a little bit of a lift but failing.

"So you are telling me that you set him up to fail? You are a team and when I am not around I need to know that you have each others backs, not that you are trying to get each other arrested for trespassing onto a crime scene!" shouted Gibbs annoyed at Tony's earlier attempt to lighten the mood.

"Yes Sir," came the reply and Tony's head bowed and he dropped his eyes to the ground in chagrin. He had been so foolish and potentially he could have saved McGee from a whole load more trouble than he was already in but instead he had jeopardized Tims career by effectively daring him to do something illegal.

The sudden raised voice from Gibbs had done nothing to help the situation with Tim who now stood there visibly shaking. Gibbs realized this and taking a slightly gentler tone again turner to the youngest and asked, "is there anything else I need to know Tim?"

Tim started to shake his head to say no but realized that in his haste to get through the story he had missed out his lie to Vance. Gibbs saw the slight hesitation in the response and in an effort to urge the truth out of him he asked, "so why did the Director find you crawling around on your hands and knees in MTAC."

"I thought I might have dropped the badge in there," muttered McGee in response.

Tony, who was the only one in the room who did not know about this looked puzzled, "but Tim I thought you said you had lost them before you came into work, you didn't go in MTAC that morning."

Gibbs shot him a look as if to say to him to stay out of this and let McGee answer. He then turned back to Tim and said, "Tony raises a good point Tim, perhaps you would care to explain."

Tims heart sank even lower than it already was. "I'm sorry I lied to Vance about the key and I shouldn't have been in there in the first place and not at night and not to do that but I had to because I panicked and I thought that she was in trouble and I wanted to help her and I need her to know that I will help her and now I have got to speak to her father and I don't know what to say and he is going to hate me then she will hate me and then it is all going to be over." Blurted out Tim through a fog of sobs, sniffles and generally without taking any breathe in the meantime.

Neither Gibbs nor Tony had understood half of what Tim had tried to explain and Tim was just so exhausted now that he was not sure he understood it himself.

"Slow down Tim, breathe" said Gibbs handing the boy a tissue. "I know you lied to Vance but what I need to know is why you were in MTAC and what you were doing, so start with the basics ok. We'll take it from there."

Slowly this time Gibbs coaxed the story out of Tim. About the text message, the fear that she, Delilah, was in trouble, the need to help her, to talk to her and the whole sorry tale. Gibbs knew what it was like to be totally smitten about a girl and want to impress her and on one level felt for Tim but could not let him get away with unauthorized access to MTAC and its equipment for personal phone calls.

"Tim we have all been there," he began, "wanting to impress the girl we have fallen in love with and on that you and I are no different, but where in that big brain of yours, once you knew she was safe did you think it was ok to spend 40 minutes chatting to her from MTAC?"

"I didn't think Sir," came the reply.

"Come on lets get this over with," came the next comment from a weary Gibbs, "Tony wait on the stairs whilst I deal with Tim first."

Tony nodded and made his way to the stairs. He sat there hoping that Gibbs was not going to be too hard on his little brother but knowing that if he had pulled the same stunt as Tim he would be in for a hard time sitting down.


	5. Chapter 5

Back in the living room Gibbs took one final look at the young man who stood in front of him, already contrite but who needed to accept his failings and feel that he had wiped the slated clean.

"So Tim I want you to tell me how many rules you have broken."

"Five Sir" came the reply

"Can you tell me what they are?"

"Well first, I used my credentials unlawfully and lied to the police officer to get through the concert queue, then I used MTAC when not authorized to do so for a private matter." He paused and looked to Gibbs.

"Yes carry on" encouraged Gibbs.

"Then I failed to report to yourself and IG I had lost my badge and then made it worse by lying to you and to Director Vance about it." continued Tim.

"And I jeopardized my career by trespassing onto a crime scene by tricking the rookie into thinking I had my ID."

"You are right," said Gibbs, and tonight we are going to deal with you failing to report the loss, lying to myself and the Director and jeopardizing your career by lying to get into the crime scene. Do you understand?"

"Yes Sir,"

"Then tomorrow you and Tony are going to spend the day writing out all of the rules about appropriate use of credentials and the procedure for reporting the loss of them and the penalties which flow from that."

Tim nodded, he just knew Gibbs would make them write it out by hand and not allow him the use of his computer, worse still he knew he would be sitting on a very sore bottom whilst doing it.

"You and he will not leave the house until you both know them off by heart. So the quicker you learn them the shorter your grounding will be."

Tim nodded, hoping he could keep Tony motivated enough to study with him.

"Finally, the use of MTAC. It costs thousands of dollars to get the satellite time you and Delilah used up, so to save NCIS some money you are going to volunteer to spend your spare time cleaning out the evidence garage so that the Director doesn't have to get contractors in to do it."

After a short pause for McGee to take in the magnitude of that job Gibbs moved to the drawer in the sideboard and took out the paddle. Beckoning McGee over to him he pulled him down and across his lap before the boy had chance to protest and ask to lean over the side of the chair. He knew that Tim would be embarrassed but also knew that after the day the kid had experienced he also needed the comfort of someone there holding onto him. He made short work of pulling down the sweatpants and boxers of the struggling Tim and set about bringing down his paddle on the upturned bottom in front of him. Tim, already exhausted, cried out at the very first lick. Gibbs hated doing this but knew he had to get the message to stick. He did not want to lose any of his team through such foolishness.

Meanwhile Tony who was still sat on the bottom step of the stairs could hear the smacks reining down on what was clearly bare skin. With each thwack he grimaced and closed his eyes tighter. He knew how Gibbs felt about lies and he had effectively helped Tim perpetuate the situation he was now in. No matter how hard he tried to cut out the sound and the thought of the pain that Tim must be in he simply couldn't. As the twelfth smack fell onto Tims now ruby coloured bottom he heard Tim let out a small yelp followed by a much louder one as two blows fell in quick succession on the tender undercurves of Tims ass. Still the thwacks could be heard. Tony could feel tears start to roll down his cheeks.

In the meantime Tim had lost all control of his emotions and sobbed uncontrollably over Gibbs knee as the paddle cracked down on him for the twentieth time.

Seeing that his boy was pretty much spent, Gibbs rubbed his back for a few seconds, "just five more Tim." But Tim did not really take that in. All he knew was that he hurt and that he never wanted to lie to anyone ever again. As the final blow landed Gibbs let the paddle drop from his hand, and gently stroked the back of Tims head before allowing the boy to stand and have some privacy to try to right his clothing. Having heard the tell tale hiss of the boxers and sweats being placed over the tender backside, Gibbs turned back to see the sorry state of Tim, whose face was red and swollen with tears and who stood with the telltale posture of a man who was not looking forward to sitting down. Gibbs gathered him in for one last hug. "I don't want to have to do this again Tim, I care about you too much to want to see you hurting like this. But … I also want you to know that I am proud of you for the work you did today and for the manner in which you accepted your punishment. Do you understand?"

Tim nodded his head against Gibbs chest, he was too tired and spent to be able to answer. Gibbs sent him up to bed. As Tim passed Tony on the stairs he stopped once again to say sorry for getting Tony into trouble too. Tony grabbed him into a hug, "Don't worry about me Tim, I have survived enough spankings to know that we get over them and we learn from them, and I also know that Gibbs will only punish me for what I did and am responsible for. I knew what we were getting ourselves into and I am sorry that I did not stop you and help you sooner." With that Tony tousled McGees hair and pushed him gently towards the steps. He then turned towards the living room and made his own way in.

When he arrived in there Gibbs had put the paddle away, well at least Tony could not see it, but he noticed that Gibbs belt was on the coffee table.

Knowing what was to come he made his way over to the side of the sofa and with one deep and dramatic breath he undid his sweats and allowed them to drop to the floor.

"The boxers too Tony," were the only words that Gibbs said. Tony closed his eyes tightly again and pushed the boxers to meet the sweats down by his ankles.

"Do I need to tell you why you are getting this strapping?" asked Gibbs.

"No boss, I know I should have told you about McGees lost creds as soon as I knew and I certainly should not have dared him into coming into the crime scene without them. I should have protected him and I didn't."

"Tony I don't expect you to protect him from everything, he will make his own mistakes but I don't expect you to set him up to fail, do you understand?"

Tony nodded his head into the pillow. "I want a verbal response Tony" chided Gibbs. "yes Sir" came the reply.

With that Gibbs took the leather belt into his hand, folded it over to keep the buckle well out of the way and laid the first stripe across Tony's rear. He repeated this a further nine times, the last two across the delicate sit spots. Tony gasped with the pain and tears began to fall once again down his already tear stained cheeks. Gibbs then stopped. Tony stayed in position expecting more, but no further licks with the belt came.

"You can stand up Tony," said Gibbs turning as he spoke to give the young lad the privacy he needed.

"Is there something wrong boss?" asked Tony surprised although rather grateful at the brevity of his punishment.

"Nothing wrong Tony, you have been punished for your part and you will assist Tim tomorrow by spending the day writing out all of the rules about appropriate use of credentials and the procedure for reporting the loss of them and the penalties which flow from that." Tony nodded.

"It seems to me" said Gibbs, "that you have been flaunting the law on the use of your credentials too over many years, so you will not leave this house until I know that you and Tim have both learnt them by heart."

"Yes Boss, I understand," grimaced Tony. Although he was good at study he hated it and sitting down learning it was not going to be easy on a backside that was burning.

"I also want you to understand Tony that I know you did want McGee to do the right thing, but sometimes when people won't do it, you have to take that decision for them. It's never easy especially when you care for them as I know you do with Tim. I am proud that you care for him and that you wanted him to have a chance but sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind."

"Yes Boss, I know I should have come to you," Tony sighed, "It's just that I thought it would be better coming from him and then when he lied I didn't want to get him into deeper trouble…. guess I failed."

"Tony caring about someone is never a failure but no one ever said it was an easy task." With that Gibbs pulled Tony over to him, hugged him and gave him a squeeze on the shoulder. "Don't ever stop caring kiddo, it's one of the things that we love most about you!"

Tony let out a weak smile but deep inside he could feel the genuine warmth in Gibbs' words.

Tony was sent up to bed too and when he entered the room he shared with Tim he could see that Tim was already asleep face down on the bed. He crossed over to check on him and noting that he was fine he knelt at the side of him and promised him that he would be alright and he was going to look after him tomorrow and for all time.

Gibbs who was also emotionally and physically drained from the events of the day was stood at the door of the boys room and heard the gentle whisper of the oldest to the youngest.

He smiled to himself that really they were both good men and everything would be all right between them.


End file.
